Lights out for 600 million in India power grid failure

An Indian barber holding a candle, cut hair for a customer at his shop in Kolkata, India, July 31. India's energy crisis cascaded over half the country Tuesday when three of its regional grids collapsed, leaving 620 million people without government-supplied electricity for several hours in, by far, the world's biggest blackout.

Roberto Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images

Indian women and children wait inside a darkened train carriage at a railway station in New Delhi on July 31. A massive power failure hit India for the second day running as three regional power grids collapsed, blacking out more than half the country in a crisis affecting over 600 million people.

Adnan Abidi / Reuters

A passenger looks through the window of a train as he waits for electricity to be restored at a railway station in New Delhi July 31. Grid failure hit India for a second day on Tuesday, cutting power to hundreds of millions of people in the populous northern and eastern states including the capital Delhi and major cities such as Kolkata.

Prakash Singh / AFP - Getty Images

Traffic crawls in Connaught Place in New Delhi July 31, as the situation worsened in the afternoon after signals stopped functioning following a failure in the Northern Power Grid. A massive power failure hit India for the second day running as three regional power grids collapsed, blacking out more than half the country in a crisis affecting over 600 million people.